


Anywhere But Here

by Sharkseye



Series: Lets Try This Again... [21]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: Cliffhangers, Dean is Lucifer, Final Battle Type Stuff, Lots of Noise, M/M, kinda a vessel!fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-04-21
Updated: 2013-04-21
Packaged: 2017-12-09 03:38:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,202
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/769538
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sharkseye/pseuds/Sharkseye
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Castiel and Lucifer prepare to head out to Las Vegas and face Michael and his angels.  When Lucifer arrives there is little talking done between the separated brothers.  Instead, they let their angel blades say all that needs to be said.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Anywhere But Here

**Author's Note:**

> Mental conversations with Meg are funnily written. Lucifer’s voice is bolded and italicized, Meg’s is just bolded. 
> 
> The words in Latin are translated in the notes at the bottom and the Latin itself is italicized, but spoken aloud. I don’t speak or understand any Latin, so the translations are completely off, but just for the sake of this story, pretend they mean exactly what they’re supposed to. Seriously, do not Google translate it or I will be very sad. More about the clock and the garden will be explained next installment and the one after that.
> 
> I'm not sure if I wrote this one weirdly, but still, I sincerely hope you enjoy the third last installment of this series.

About ten minutes before Paimon shouted out the line that was getting so common into hell’s radio, Castiel had been extremely happy.  He had just woken up from an amazing sleep, still laying on top of his mate and letting out a steady purr as Lucifer ran his hands up and down Castiel’s back.  Castiel had stretched out his newly ice changed wings and rubbed them against Lucifer’s, pleased at the feeling and immersing himself in his mate.  Whereas usually after waking up they would’ve dissolved into rough and satisfying sex, the claiming had tired both of them out and so they had just taken the time to map out the new mixture of grace that presented them as mates.  Lucifer had been his customary possessive self, but Castiel had been surprised to find that he was also quite content with the marks Lucifer bore that showed Castiel’s claim.  The bite marks had healed while they slept and left no trace, but their wings left their bond unmistakable.  Normally with any angel-archangel mate bond only the angel would have their wings change to reflect the archangel.  That Lucifer’s wings had changed as well meant a ton, that the archangel was completely open to Castiel, baring everything.  So it had been extremely enjoyable to relearn his mate with Castiel’s marks on him.  The shadows that danced their way through Lucifer’s wings and the grace that was not the archangels own, but was so firmly entrenched that it could never be removed or burnt out.  It was the perfect prelude for a call to battle that Castiel didn’t want to face. 

Even now as Castiel sent out orders to his garrison, releasing weapons of God and placing angels to work with different garrisons of Paimon’s, he wished that they were far away from this mess, or better yet, that it all just went away without a fuss.  True, he may be cut off from heaven and spending a good chunk of his time in hell, but as he watched Lucifer grabbing a bunch of random objects he knew he was happy.  If only the two of them could be anywhere else.

Nevertheless, he couldn’t put this off forever.  “Have you gotten everything you need?”

Lucifer stopped, pausing for a moment before turning back to Castiel, dumping almost all the things he had picked up onto the bed before speaking, sending his message across hell’s radio.   _‘There’s a demon named Meg who will be arriving sometime during this.  I need her to have access to me, so make sure she’s protected.  It’s got to do with my back-up plan, don’t worry’_

Castiel frowned at the lack of information but Lucifer stepped up close to him, sliding the letter he still held into Castiel’s trench coat pocket and patting it twice.  He looked serious about it, unnerving the seraph. “You have to read that once this is all over.  Kay?”

“Why can’t you just tell me what it says?” Castiel asked

“Who says I’ll still have the courage to do so?” Lucifer countered, looking fond and pulling Castiel into a kiss before he could answer, driving all suspicions and thoughts of the letter from his mind.  In Castiel’s opinion the kiss was broken all too soon, but Lucifer only pulled back enough to rest their foreheads together, green gaze meeting blue.  “We should go.”

Castiel nodded, kissing Lucifer one last time before stepping back and holding out his hand.  Lucifer watched him for a few more seconds but then took it, the side of his mouth quirking up into a smile.  The moment of affection was there for what felt like an infinitesimal amount of time before the masks were pulled up in anticipation for the fight ahead.  Wings spread and the world around them changed, Castiel not surprised to find himself landing alone a little ways away from Michael in the midst of a zone of rubble.  Paimon and Gabriel were dancing around Michael, but neither one of them were doing well while Michael still looked fresh and vigorous.  Demons and angels struggled on the sidelines, but that was all Castiel took in before Lucifer arrived, pushing Michael back as he strode forwards.  Paimon and Gabriel looked far too grateful for the interruption and Castiel advanced to help them retreat.  Michael stilled at the arrival of his brother, watching Castiel, Gabriel and Paimon move away without saying anything.  The fighting groups around them seemed to almost fade away, all of Castiel’s focus on Lucifer and Michael.

Finally Michael turned to Lucifer, a casual smile on his face and his voice stayed completely calm and almost warm. “I wish I could say it was good to see you Lucifer”

Looking for all the world like acquaintances on the slightly higher spectrum of rivalry, Lucifer smiled back at his brother, a cold look in contrast to the one he had worn towards Castiel. “Likewise”

Castiel couldn’t hear the sound of the obsidian blade slipping into Lucifer’s hand over the din around them, but he could imagine it very well.  Watching his mate spread his wings and draw a blade on the oldest and strongest archangel Castiel once again wished they could be anywhere but here.

 

~*~

 

Seeing Michael again really sucked.  Not only because it meant that Lucifer had to fight him, but also because he wasn’t prepared to see his older brother again.  The good son, the one who did what Father wanted and received his love.  An archangel Lucifer wanted to tear apart, flay alive, gather up and cling to for even the smallest sense of comfort.  The brother who had been his everything second only to Father such a long time ago, and now another someone Lucifer had lost because of his own petty squabbling so long ago.  One of the worst parts about it was that Lucifer couldn’t say he regretted it.  If he had not been cast into his cage and tried to derail the angel’s plans by becoming Dean, he never would’ve had Castiel.  The seraph would have always just been another sibling to Lucifer, a cold and emotionless fighter.

“I’m truly sorry about this brother” Michael murmured, his voice pulling Lucifer back to the present, pitched so that only he could hear it.  “But you’ve already gone too far, let too many of our brothers become causalities.”

Lucifer’s smile turned sad and he nodded slightly to acknowledge the statement but not repent for it. There had been too many deaths already, Lucifer had to do this as quickly as possible so that there’d be no more.  First though, some stalling wouldn’t go amiss.  A statement “Then you know what happened to Raphael”

“You shouldn’t have done that to him.  Throwing him in your cage was childish” Michael said, his face darkening slightly in anger that Lucifer could sympathize with.  The only brother who stayed with you after the others left, and he was dragged down into hell by your other brother who had left heaven centuries before.  It was Raphael’s own fault, but that was beside the point.  Very carefully Lucifer stretched out his mind, reaching for the demon he had given a solo mission and hoping she was finished.  What had just been a failsafe was now the only plan they had.  Nothing else had potential to work well enough that it had been considered further than the drawing board.

“ ** _Have you gotten everything I asked you for?_** ” He sent to Meg before replying to Michael, both the archangel’s voices still quiet. “Well I wasn’t exactly in the right frame of mind you know.  What with Raphael trying to kill Cas.”

Now real anger passed Michael’s face as both him and Meg replied at the same time. “You only recently claimed him.  The two of you weren’t mate’s when Raphael attacked him.”

“ **Yes. Is it time?”**

“He still had my marks on him.  Raphael knew we’re together” Lucifer countered, knowing that his stalling time was growing shorter as Michael got angrier, perhaps this hadn’t been the best topic to bring up.  Had Lucifer never fell Michael would’ve been his mate.  Seeing Lucifer with a mix of Cas’ wings couldn’t be that pleasant

**_“Las Vegas, Michael is here.  Set everything up before arriving. Smash the clock holder and remove the clock itself.”_ **

And then the stalling time was up and Michael was lunging forwards, his wings burning like the sun and bringing screams from every demonic tinted being nearby.  Lucifer’s weapon met Michael’s in a ringing clash, stepping back and slicing forward easily, lashing out in a quickly deflected strike.

**“Should the pieces also go in the vase?”**

He retreated a few steps as Michael blasted him with grace, but created a wedge of cold that he sent his brothers way, slashing forwards at the same time with his wing to try and catch Michael with the newly shadowed tines.

**_“The holder goes in the vase and then the vase is covered and smashed.  I need the clock itself separately, which will start turning once the vase is broken.”_**  

He missed, but managed to force Michael to retreat somewhat.  The repeated attack of a blast of grace caught Lucifer off guard this time and he was thrown back into what used to be a casino.  Getting to his feet he noticed the bodies laying across chairs, the tables covered in blood and the abandoned chips scattered on the ground.

**“Finished and arrived, how do you want me to get you the clock?”**

Michael strode in through the hole Lucifer had made, paying no more attention to the dead humans than one would give a dead weed in a park.  His focus was all on Lucifer, ignoring the place around him and Lucifer decided to try and use that to his advantage.  He feinted with a wide lash of grace, intending and succeeding on bringing the building crashing down around them, hoping against hope that there was no one still alive in it.

**_“Wait outside the building that is falling, throw it too me when I see you”_ **

It wasn’t much of a plan, but Lucifer scrambled over and through the rubble, meeting Michael partway through and being stopped by his blade.

**“Ready** ”

A well positioned strike from Michael had Lucifer gasping in pain as his right arm was opened up, a mix of crimson blood and grace painting the air before joining the dust on the ground.  The pain lancing through him, Lucifer transferred him blade to the other hand and grabbed a handful of Michael’s wings with his already damaged hand.  He cursed in pain as his brother’s grace which had once sung with joy when Lucifer touched it now bit into him, burning his vessel and true self. The shock of the move gave Lucifer an opening though and he greedily took it, sidestepping and returning back out onto the street, automatically reaching up to catch a small glint of silver that arched through the air towards him.  He almost dropped it when he realized he had used his burned hand, but somehow managed to hold on.

**_“Thank you.  You may stay and help the others or go, both Paimon and Cas have been informed that you played a role, Cas will be informed more in depth of the role in a letter afterwards, so I suggest you step cautiously until the confusion’s cleared up.”_ **

The glass of the clock was broken and Lucifer embedded it deeply into his hand so he could hold on.  Dimly he realized how bad it was that he had to check to make sure it was there, not able to feel anything from the amount of nerve damage.  Turning back around and quickly moving across the remains of the building, he stopped his vessel from breathing so he wouldn’t choke on the dust.  Michael was blazing in anger and furiously digging his way out of the wreckage, though Lucifer didn’t think he had seen the clock.  Anyways, even if he had, he wouldn’t know what it was.  Lucifer had needed to search long and hard to get the idea on how to open the garden, it was highly unlikely Michael would figure it out until they were trapped there. 

And there was the brilliant and terrifying part of the plan, the explanation that stole all thought.  The items Meg had retrieved for Lucifer were ones that once together, destabilized reality, sending a jagged cut into the fabric into the molecule thin walls between levels of existence.  On their own they were completely useless, the crack was momentary and definitely not big enough for anything to get through.  It was the clock that made the whole thing work.  An item usually used to stop time but now used for the purposes of going beyond it, slitting through the already tiny walls and reopening up a bubble that would quickly close behind it.  A bubble that Father himself had created to house the garden, one not existing within time and expanding hundreds of lifetimes between seconds, seconds in lifetimes. One clock and one chance to get there, but no way to get out.  Once it was sealed, it would be sealed forever.  Nothing short of Father Himself could reopen the bubble once it was closed.  Lucifer didn’t kid himself that he’d be able to just through Michael in, he’d have to drag the other archangel there himself, kicking and screaming. 

 

~*~

 

Sam couldn’t stop himself from calling out his brother’s name even though the words were lost completely in the din around them.  Dean was moving back into the building that had just collapsed on him and Michael, taking little head of the danger around them.  Sam felt a hand grab his wrist and he snarled at its owner, turning to see Gabriel pulling him back, a pained look on the archangel’s face.  Knowing there was no way of getting out of Gabriel’s grip short of stabbing him with an angel blade,—and that would make all the soul siphoning that had recently occurred useless—Sam resigned himself to watching from the sidelines, just standing around now that most of the fighting angels and demons had moved away so as not to get in the way of the fighting archangels.  Not that he could do much help anyways, archangel battles were terrifying, Sam could really see now why one between Lucifer and Michael would bring about the apocalypse.

They had been fighting for less than ten minutes and already destroyed three city streets.  Michael, who was fighting to kill, was doing better off than Sam’s brother.  Dean’s right arm down to his hand was completely mangled, covered in a mix of light and blood but clenched in a tight fist around the item someone had thrown him.  The rest of his body was covered in scrapes and blood but it was the grace that worried Sam most.  Dean’s wings were fully on display and while normally Sam would find it fascinating to watch the almost languid movements of ice and shadow, now he just felt cold with horror.  The three that were broken off hadn’t fully healed and were bleeding grace, evidently slowing his brother down quite a bit

Michael managed to get out of the rubble as Sam’s mind was assessing Dean and the archangel threw himself at Dean once again, their blades sending out loud rings as they clashed.  Sam couldn’t make out Dean’s face to see if he was as confident as Michael, but he really hoped that his brother had a plan for this, that the object he was thrown would somehow help him defeat Michael.  Sam swore slightly under his breath, knowing he should have done more research into a way to stop the apocalypses.  He had spent days pouring over ideas in-between times when him and Gabriel would go out for grabbing weapons and holy oil that was being used all around them, but it still hadn’t been enough to help Dean any.

Sam hadn’t prayed since finding out what angels were like, but now he was considering doing it again, hoping desperately for anything to save his brother.

 

~*~

 

**“A letter? Where will you be? What does the clock d-”**

Lucifer cut Meg off before she finished her question, leaving the demons mind and focusing solely on the task at hand, namely, staying alive long enough to recite the words that he had memorized only days previously.  Luckily it wasn’t very long, hardly four lines.

_“Nunc omnes tradendos historia, quaestiones eam non invenire,”_ Lucifer’s voice was quiet, barely an undertone and bringing no sound from the slowly spinning clock.

Michael attacked again and Lucifer knew he wasn’t drawing this out any longer, fully ready now to kill his brother.

_“Respondet mysteriis quod dedecus hoc concussi animi.”_  Volume rising steadily as finally the clock stirred, showing its existence with a slight whine from his right hand

Slashing out at Michael, Lucifer missed and was forced to dodge with a roll.  A strike upwards turned into a parry and then a hit!  A long bleeding gash sent across Michael’s face.

_“_ _Educam eas ad vos risus sed foeda creata sum dolos,”_ A steady peal now rising from the clock, high pitched and tolling out like delicate thunder as it came up to a crescendo.

Then pain as a blade pierced Lucifer’s side, followed by a brief moment of triumph as his own blade took off the top of Michael’s right wings.  A small scale blast that leveled any bit of the casino still standing.  Movement and a new street with a line of restaurants and strip clubs intertwined—only in Las Vegas.  No time to morn the dead humans, too full of morning for time Lucifer could have had, time lost to the whirling clock in his hand.  The last line sprung to Lucifer’s lips and he maneuvered Michael around so Lucifer could seek out through the spectators, darting eyes wanting to see his mate one more time.

_“Reliquit post te in sempiternum, omnia secum somnia!”_ A heartbroken whisper lost amidst the scream of the clock turning, bringing with it the start of another penance for destructive pride so long ago.

Lucifer now frantically sought out Cas, abandoning his angel blade to the ground and locking his arms around Michael, slapping his destroyed hand around the back of Michael’s neck and pinning his sword between them.  Lucifer passed Sam’s alarmed frame by briefly, forcing himself to look away when he finally located his other kin.  He caught Cas’ gaze just as the clock reached fortissimo and the air around them started to darken, wisps of void turning and spinning around the time device and it’s holder.  Lucifer knew his voice wouldn’t be heard over the scream of the clock opening up the garden, but he still spent his last few seconds shouting out an ever unheard apology to his mate. 

The last thing Lucifer saw before darkness took him completely was Cas’ fearful face, one of his arms outstretched in a futile gesture as he took a step towards the archangel he’d never reach in time, the shape of Lucifer’s name on his lips and a wide blue gaze that swallowed the sky. 

**Author's Note:**

> “All now consigned to history, as questions fail to find,   
> Answers to the mysteries that disgrace this shattered mind.   
> You came to bring them laughter but I created foul schemes,   
> You left ever after, taking with you all our dreams.”   
> A slight edit of ‘Return To Eden’ by Neil Graham Marsden


End file.
